Like the Cleric, The Fighter is another class that doesn’t require anything in the way of adaptation, per se, to remake in Savage Worlds. It just, you know, fights. If you want to recreate an Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Archer, just take AB: Magic, then don’t invest much in the way of advances. That’s probably as demanding as any of the archetypes get.
So, instead, we’re going to talk about what may be the most iconic D&D 5E Fighter - the Battlemaster - as a tool for showcasing the differences in how Savage Worlds and 5E handle combat moves more complicated than “I hit him with my sword.”
Here’s where I’m going to say something bold that some of you may not like: vanilla, non-magical melee combat in 5E, without subclass features like Battlemaster Maneuvers, is bland. It’s still fun, it’s just very limiting. Savage Worlds, hands down, gives you more interesting things to do in a scuffle. Fight me.
Once again, for those of you who are new to the series, I’ll admit some bias up front: I’m relatively new to D&D and I’ve mostly played and run Savage Worlds. So I’m very aware of and up front about my biases. That said, I stand by the idea that mundane 5E combat needs work. That isn’t to say D&D combat as a whole is boring or unsophisticated, it’s just very limiting if you don’t have magic. I’m not the only one who has looked at Maneuvers and thought “Why do I need an Archetype or Feat to trip people?” If you don’t have magic or a quasi-magical class ability, you just don’t have a ton of engaging options. One thing I like about Savage Worlds is you almost always have a compelling alternative to making another weapon attack. You can pull off an Agility Trick, you can initiate a Test of Wills, you can Shield Bash an enemy or knock them prone - with a good DM and a decent build, you have tons of options and there’s no Feat or Archetype you have to take to unlock them. Heck, you can always make an Unskilled check at the least.
To explain, let’s look at what you can do to help yourself out if you’re at a disadvantage in a combat situation in SWADE. Let’s say you’re not a combatant character - maybe you’re the party’s charismatic face, but someone’s all up in your grill throwing punches. You have options! You can Taunt or Intimate your enemy, making them Vulnerable or Distracted - keeping them from hitting you next round. If you’re an acrobat but don’t have a high Fighting skill, you can Trip them using Agility instead. If your allies are in melee, but struggling to land a punch, you can shout out some encouragement and make a Support roll.
What if you need to land a hit, but your enemy’s Parry is too high? You can make a Wild Attack at +2, but at the cost of leaving yourself Vulnerable next round. Risky, but it can be worth it. Or you can make a Smarts Test to distract them, making them easier to hit next round. If your ally is in the same boat, sidle on over and give them a Gang Up Bonus - more flexible than D&D’s flanking or Help Action rules.
Are you able to hold your own in melee, but the enemy has a big two-handed greatsword that can cleave you in half if they get lucky? Disarm them, so they’re forced to choose next round between spending an action to retrieve their weapon or making an unarmed attack. If you coordinate with an ally, maybe your buddy can snatch it off the ground, turning the tables.
I’ll admit I also prefer how Savage Worlds handles Actions. The 5E structure of Action + Bonus Action + Reaction feels clunky and the dividing line between Action and Bonus Action feels arbitrary. OTOH, the idea in Savage Worlds that you can take multiple actions, but at a penalty, feels intuitive.
Called Shots are another place where I’ll give Savage Worlds the advantage. The closest thing you get to called shots are Battlemaster Maneuvers and the Great Weapon Fighter and Sharpshooter Feats, but those are locked behind an archetype and Feats, respectively. A lot of GMs homebrew their own rules for things like headshots, but from what I’ve read most of these err on the side of being overpowered. In the D&D system, these sort of extra potent hits are supposed to be simulated by systems like the Critical Hit, but the fact that there’s no choice involved - just luck - makes it uninteresting. I like that, in Savage Worlds, anyone can choose to do more damage by attempting a more difficult Called Shot.
I suspect the fact that the martial combat system is underdeveloped is because D&D is a high fantasy-focused game - the base assumption is that most characters are going to have access to some magic or quasi-magical abilities, so the designers didn’t feel any pressure to give non-magical characters more options. And I’d suspect that, if purely martial characters had a greater menu of options, it would slow D&D combat down even more. Again, there’s nothing wrong with the way D&D does things - it’s just optimized for magic at the expense of purely martial characters. And if you're playing a caster or certain martial archetypes, 5E combat is awesome. Savage Worlds, though, gives everyone something interesting to do every turn.
[Note: In the last post I promised this time I'd write about the Druid, but I couldn't figure out what to do with the class to make it interesting in Savage Worlds, so it's on hold until I can come up with a way to discuss it.]
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